


I'm At One

by patrochilles_trash



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anxiety, Everyone Is Alive, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Flash Thompson Bullies Peter Parker, Fluff, Irondad, NOT STARKER - Freeform, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker has PTSD, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Precious Ned Leeds, Steve Rogers Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, and its dialogue heavy, dont ask me how, i dont like the ending too much, non compliant with any of it though, sorry - Freeform, spiderson, the avengers are kind of traumatized from thanos, they all have PTSD, we stan ned in this house, well there's sort of hurt but they're working on it, you can't tell me that they wouldn't be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27905209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patrochilles_trash/pseuds/patrochilles_trash
Summary: It would have been a devastating understatement to say that any of the heroes were handling the trauma from the fight well. The memories bled and festered like open, infected wounds, haunting them at all hours of the day and night.Those that were blipped out of existence and ripped back into reality five years later to be thrown directly in the fight for every life in the universe without the time for reorientation or explanation were understandably handling it much worse.When Peter and Tony had first made it back to the old Avengers Tower, they clung to one another like a lifeline. Tony was insistent on seeing the rise and fall of Peter’s chest. He would forgo sleep whenever possible, afraid that if he closed his eyes, the young hero, hisson, would be gone again.It was an obsession that the others couldn’t fault him for. They understood. If it wasn’t Peter they were watching, it was Bucky, Sam, or Wanda.ORPeter believes that he's ready to start going back to school nearly a year after the final battle against Thanos upstate. Of course, Parker luck strikes where they least expect it.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Steve Rogers, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 394
Collections: Absolute Faves, Spider-Man Public Identity Reveal





	I'm At One

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea rattling around in my head for a while, and I'm not sure it came out like I wanted it to. 
> 
> Oh well. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys like it! Thank you so much for reading!! 
> 
> Also if any of you have any suggestions, I'm always open to ideas, and if you find any errors, feel free to let me know!!
> 
> I've got some more stuff planned out, and I'm playing around with some Stuckony and Parkner stuff for the future!

In the ten months after the final battle against Thanos and his army, it was well known amongst the Avengers that Peter and Tony never strayed from each other’s side for any real length of time. 

Their longest points of separation were the steadily increasing hours of sleep each time the exhaustion caught up to them, when they eventually drug themselves to bed. 

It would have been a devastating understatement to say that any of the heroes were handling the trauma from the fight well. The memories bled and festered like open, infected wounds, haunting them at all hours of the day and night. 

Those that were blipped out of existence and ripped back into reality five years later to be thrown directly in the fight for every life in the universe without the time for reorientation or explanation were understandably handling it much worse.

When Peter and Tony had first made it back to the old Avengers Tower, they clung to one another like a lifeline. Tony was insistent on seeing the rise and fall of Peter’s chest. He would forgo sleep whenever possible, afraid that if he closed his eyes, the young hero, his _son_ , would be gone again.

It was an obsession that the others couldn’t fault him for. They understood. If it wasn’t Peter they were watching, it was Bucky, Sam, or Wanda. 

The paranoia and fear disappeared little by little each day. 

No longer did the team make their way to their respective rooms, only to find their selves wandering back into the common room no more than forty-five minutes later seeking solace and validation of their existence in the arms of their found family. Many nights were spent sprawled across couches and chairs rather than their beds.

Eventually, they all stopped jumping at shadows around the corner and flinching at sudden noises. The panic attacks and outbursts came fewer and farther in between. 

It didn’t mean that relapses didn’t happen. There were times when Wanda would stare off into nothingness for hours, completely unmoving until she snapped out of it in a haze that lingered for the rest of the day. Sometimes Bucky would isolate himself for hours on end until Steve would find him and bring him out, grounding the man to the world around him. They all would be possessed by the overwhelming need to feel each other, to make sure that everyone was in fact still alive and _there_.

In some way, Tony and Peter were affected the hardest out of all of them. 

Steve never blamed his partner. He never held it against him when Tony would wake in cold sweats, gasping to get air in his lungs, and run to Peter’s room just to hold the sixteen-year-old. He also never blamed Peter when the teen did the same, shaking and sobbing, silently begging to climb into their bed.

Just like never hesitated to scoot over on those nights, leaving a warm spot between the two of them for Peter to squeeze in. The two heroes would hold him close and whisper words of love and life into brown waves until the three of them would drift off into sleep. 

The team was all the family Peter had left. Steve and Tony filled the roles of his fathers without hesitation when May passed all those years ago. They, along with the other Avengers, picked up the pieces of the distraught and broken teen. 

Steve recalled the same thing happened when they found Bucky. 

They held Steve together when he was falling apart at the seams during the hunt for the man he saw as his brother, and they were quick to tuck Bucky into their fold as he recovered. 

It was only natural that they would do it all again, keep each other standing on unsteady feet, relearning life one day at a time. 

Trauma aside, Peter, Sam, Bucky, and Wanda were back to their normal selves by the time September rolled around. 

It had helped that the world was still healing. There had been no missions or existential crises in the time after Thanos. Of course, it was only a matter of time, but they weren’t complaining. 

Sure, Tony could feel his heart rate spike every time Peter left his sight, but he wasn’t choking with the all-consuming need to see him anymore, and Peter’s nightmares were slowly subsiding.

School had just started back a few weeks ago, and Peter had decided that he was ready to go back, to start integrating himself into society again. 

The idea sat like a ton of bricks in Tony’s gut. Steve had shifted uncomfortably when the teen brought it up, unsure of the idea himself. 

Even though the super soldier hadn’t taken the pseudo-death of Peter as hard as Tony – no one in the world could have – it didn’t mean that he liked the idea of the arachnid straying too far either. 

It didn’t take much convincing for the men to cave. It was impossible to say no to Peter, especially in days of late.

They eventually came to an agreement of two more weeks, giving everyone time to prepare and get the appropriate documentation in order. Tony never said that he hoped that Peter would change his mind in those fourteen days.

The teen never did. Once he had his mind set on something, it was nearly impossible for him to change it. 

**&**

“You sure you’re going to be okay, Pete?” Steve asked for the fifth time that morning, worry etched deep into his face. 

Peter felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“I’m telling you guys the same thing that I’ve told you for the past two weeks. I’ll be fine. I’m ready to go back. I kinda miss hanging out with people my age.” 

Tony chewed on the inside of his lip, giving the teen another once over. 

“If you feel like you need to leave, you can call us at any time, okay? We’ll come and get you right away. I don’t care if it’s because you’re overwhelmed or if it’s something as simple as you deciding that it’s stupid and you just want to come home.” 

This time Peter did smile. He knew he should be annoyed with the hovering, but he couldn’t help the rush of warmth that went through him. 

Sometimes, he didn’t mind the doting. 

“Dad, pops, I get it. Besides, Karen will inevitably betray me and contact you guys if something goes wrong anyway,” he said, shaking the wrist that his watch sat on, the same one that also happened to be the housing unit for the Iron Spider suit. 

It was the compromise he had to make to get his fathers, and the rest of the team for that matter, to let him go back to Midtown for his junior year. He had to take the suit with him in case of emergency, no matter how unlikely it was.

Both Steve and Tony cracked a smile at him before they both pulled him into a tight hug between them. 

“Alright, cucciolo. Go on before you’re late. Happy is downstairs waiting for you,” Tony said after pressing a kiss to the top of his head. 

Steve squeezed him tight for a moment, causing the teen to cough a laugh as the air was nearly smushed out of him. 

He let him go and ruffled the wavy curls. 

“I’ll see you guys this afternoon! Love you!” he chirped, practically sprinting for the door in case they changed their minds about letting him go. 

He could hear them say their goodbyes as the door shut behind him, and he tried to pretend that the shaking in his hands was from excitement and not the creeping anxiety. 

**&**

“Tony? You down here?” Steve asked, poking his head through the doors of the lab.

The genius didn’t look from the hologram he was facing. 

“Yeah. I’m here,” he said, eyes fixated on the blinking red dot that was moving down the streets of New York. 

Tony had gone straight to the lab to watch the tracker in Peter’s suit to make sure the teen got to school safely. 

“You okay, doll?” the blonde asked, walking further in the room and wrapping his arms around his partner from behind. 

Tony leaned back into the embrace with a sigh.

“I thought that I would be ready, you know? I thought that- that I would be okay seeing him walk out that door, but that’s not the case. It’s nearly been a year, and I still feel like I can’t breathe.” 

Steve dipped his head to kiss the brunette’s shoulder softly. He noticed the way that Tony clenched his hands to hide the fact that they were shaking, and he could feel the tension in every muscle in his body. 

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not okay either,” he rumbled, not bothering to pick his head up, instead choosing to inhale the familiar scent of bergamot, apple, and a hint of motor oil. 

“I watched him leave, Steve, and all I could think of was his face on Titan, when he _knew_ something was wrong, and he looked at me with those huge eyes of his, and,” Tony paused to take a shaky breath, “and I swear it was like my heart shattered all over again today. Rationally, I know he’s going to be alright, but apparently, I’m incapable of being rational when it comes to Peter Parker.” 

Steve chuckled softly and turned Tony in his arms. 

They had hundreds of discussions about what happened on Titan, and the super soldier knew that there was nothing he could say that hadn’t already been said.

“This is the first time that he’s been willing to go out without you in nearly a year, Tony. Of course, it’s going to sting. I’m terrified of losing him again too. I’m terrified of losing _everyone_ again, but we can’t keep them holed up in the tower forever, especially not Peter. He’d eventually go stir crazy.” 

Tony huffed a laugh at the thought. 

“You’re right. I just can’t stop the panic.”

“He’s just a 30-minute drive away, baby.”

“29 minutes and 17 seconds.”

Steve shook his head with a smile. 

“Fine. He’s just 29 minutes and 17 seconds away. It’s even faster if you have the suit. Peter can take care of himself in the meantime, especially with his suit. Not to mention, if there was an emergency, you know damn well that there’s a tower full of superheroes that would be on the move in a heartbeat,” he said, his tone warm and reassuring. 

Tony wrapped his arms around Steve and tucked his head into the space where the man’s neck met his shoulder, refusing to acknowledge that he had to stand on the tips of his feet to do so. 

“Come on, doll. Let’s go downstairs. I think Buck wanted to talk to you about some upgrades for his arm. He had a few ideas rattling around last time I checked,” Steve said after a moment of enjoying the embrace. 

Tony pulled his head back, eyes sparking with interest. 

Steve could have sworn his heart melted right out of his chest. That look never failed to have him falling in love with the genius all over again.

“Why didn’t you say so? Come on, dear. I have a certain Terminator to hunt down,” Tony said with a smirk, disentangling himself from the super soldier to make a beeline for the doors. 

Steve just snorted and followed after him. 

**&**

Peter knew he should have expected a small commotion when he came back.

After the initial attack on New York, school continued as normal until the first snap happened, causing the world to come to a standstill in grief and loss. Schools across the world had postponed classes and attendance until people started to pick up the pieces and begin where they left off. When the second snap brought everyone back, it was an entirely different kind of adjustment. There were hundreds of thousands of people five years out of time that had to find a place again, and the school population was divided. Classes had resumed as normal three months later. 

There had been almost radio silence from him since he got back. He spoke with Ned and MJ a few times, but he mostly cut contact from the outside world, the idea of it overwhelming him on principle. With school already a month in, he was throwing himself to the proverbial wolves at a time where people would absolutely notice his return sooner rather than later. 

Maybe it wasn’t his wisest decision yet. 

“Peter!” Ned shouted in excitement, his voice cracking on the word. 

Peter was proud of himself for not flinching at the noise, and a smile broke out onto his face instead. 

His best friend came barreling at him at full speed, throwing his arms around him in a bone-crushing hug. Peter returned the embrace with far less force. 

“I missed you so much dude! This place hasn’t been the same without you!” he said, refusing to let go. 

Peter didn’t mind. He realized how much he had missed Ned and started to regret not making an attempt to see him sooner. Guilt crept into the corners of his mind. 

“I’m sorry, Ned. I should have invited you to the tower or something, and-“

Ned pulled back and cut him off with a shake of his head. 

“Don’t apologize. Seriously. I’m not mad. You went through some crazy shit, and I know that you needed time to process it.”

Peter felt a lump form in the back of his throat, and he forced himself to swallow it down. He really didn’t know how he managed to get a friend like Ned. 

“It’s not like I was the only one that got blipped. You did too, and you came back to school and started your life up again.” 

The teen in front of him rolled his eyes. 

“Dude,” he said seriously. “I also didn’t have to literally fight for my life and everyone else’s the second I got back. Peter, you didn’t even have time to process what happened leading up to the blip. The rest of us were just living our normal lives when all of a sudden, _poof_ , we just disappeared. Yeah, it was an adjustment, but my experience isn’t remotely comparable with yours. I actually don’t even know what happened you guys out there. No one really does.” 

Peter shifted uncomfortably. Ned was right. No one except the people present there that day knew exactly what had happened upstate. There had been news coverage for months, but it was all speculation and images taken from after the battle. None of the heroes had given any sort of statement regarding the events. No one had wanted to relieve it long enough to do so. 

“I guess when you put it like that, it makes sense,” he said with a sheepish smile. “I’ll tell you one day, by the way, from start to finish. I’ll tell you everything, but it’s still hard. I-“

“Don’t stress it, man. As cool as it all sounds, all I care about is that you’re okay,” Ned cut him off with a grin. 

“You’re truly one of the last good things in the world,” Peter said, returning the blinding smile. 

Ned opened his mouth like he was going to say something else, but a familiar sneer cut him off. 

“Well, look who finally decided to show his face again. You know, for a second, I got excited when I didn’t see you. I had hoped that maybe you didn’t get blipped, and I would never have to see your face again.”

Peter immediately wanted to turn around a go home. He almost wasn’t surprised that Flash had gotten snapped out of existence, considering his luck. 

Ned winced slightly. 

“I may have forgot to mention that Flash is still here,” he said quietly. 

“Good to see you too, Flash,” Peter deadpanned, wishing he was anywhere else. 

“So, what took you so long to come back, Penis? You that much of a wimp that you couldn’t face the world for this long?” 

Peter’s skin started to crawl as anger rose up in him. He wanted to lash out, shout, and scream because Flash had no idea. He would _never_ understand what they went through. His hands twitched at his sides. 

“I bet you cried, Penis. I bet you cried every day for months because you couldn’t handle it.”

Peter watched as Ned subtly shifted to position himself in front of him, his face the perfect depiction of anger and outrage. The part of him that wasn’t drowning in rage was touched. 

Flash seemed to notice as well and he broke off into roaring laughter. 

“Oh, that’s rich. You’ve got your boyfriend to protect you now. You’re pathetic,” he jeered. 

“I don’t have time for this today, Flash. So, why don’t you just fuck right off?” Peter snarled, venom dripping from every syllable. 

Flash recoiled at the tone, and Peter felt a sense of satisfaction rest in him. He’d never talked back to the other teen like that, not in all the years of near-constant bullying, but he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he’d grown considerably after two battles with a man that was intent on killing his entire family and destroying half of the universe. A high school bully paled in comparison. 

Peter took Flash’s stunned silence as an opportunity to shove past him, Ned hot on his heels. 

“You okay?” he asked quietly, once they were out of earshot. 

Peter nodded. 

“Yeah, I’m good. Normally I can tune out his bullshit, but I didn’t expect him to make digs like that.” 

Ned hummed in agreement as they made their way down to the first class of the morning.

“Even though he didn’t know, it was still a low blow. You don’t poke at people’s trauma like that.” 

The young hero laughed without humor. 

“Well, he always joked about my dead family so I guess it would be safe to assume that nothing is off limits for him.” 

“Why couldn’t he have escaped the blip,” Ned said with a groan. 

“Because I probably murdered a priest in my past life, and this is the universe’s way of getting back at me.” 

The sound of Ned’s sudden bark of laughter lifted Peter’s mood a little. There at least was one good thing that came out of coming back.

**&**

“Okay, guys,” Peter’s World Cultures teacher, Mr. Jameson, started, clapping his hands together to garner the attention of the class. “I’m postponing today’s normal lesson plan so I can instead talk to you all about your project for the nine weeks.” 

There were a few murmurs of interest and question around the room. 

“What I want you all to do is think of a hero. It could be any hero. I’m talking about someone as famous as Captain America or even your local healthcare worker. Once you do that, you’ll come up with a presentation explaining how they have affected not only you, but the lives of others as well. I want you to tell me what their impact on the world is.” 

Peter wanted to fling himself out of the tower with no suit. Of course, today had to be the day that he came back. _Of course_.

“I also have a little something planned to show you guys that goes along with this rather well, and I think you’ll find it very interesting,” Mr. Jameson said with a grin as he readied the projector on the ceiling.  
Peter started aimlessly jotting down equations in an attempt to drown out the excited chatter around him. Apparently, the class really liked the idea of making a presentation on superheroes. 

The blue screen lit up the whiteboard at the front for only a moment before Mr. Jameson had shared his computer screen to the device. 

The youngest Avenger glanced up at the screen out of curiosity, and when the news title displayed across the board registered in his brain, he felt like someone had sucked all of the air out of the room. 

_The Battle for Earth and the Universe: An Inside Look at the Wreckage Found Post-Bellum._

“This article just came out a few days ago. From my understanding, this photographer got special rights to come and take pictures of the spot upstate almost immediately after the Avengers defeated Thanos!” Mr. Jameson’s tone was almost giddy, and the rest of the class had zeroed in on the board, anxious to get any information on the mysterious fight. 

There weren’t any photographers or media outlets allowed anywhere near the destroyed field where the Avengers Compound used to stand. Peter was sure of it. He was present for the countless meetings with SHIELD to decided how much information the general public was allowed to know, and unauthorized images were an absolute no. Someone had snuck over and taken pictures and was now posting them for what was likely substantial monetary gain. 

Peter would have been enraged if he wasn’t in the middle of a downward spiral of all-consuming panic. There was a reason he chose not to look at any images or set foot near the remains of the compound. 

The teacher started to scroll down the page to reveal the backdrop of Peter’s nightmares, and he was suddenly fighting to get air in his lungs. 

The first image was of foot-trampled ground, the grass that was once green and plush was completely gone. Building debris were dotted around the immediate area, and more could be seen in the distance. A few Wakandan weapons lay scattered and forgotten in the dirt, their owners long dead. 

The students were pointing and gasping, and Mr. Jameson was talking, but Peter couldn’t make out the words. Everything sounded muddled in his ears. 

He absently realized that Karen had probably alerted his fathers of his increased heart rate because he could feel the organ beating violently behind his ribs. 

The next picture was of the destroyed ships Thanos’s army had come in on. 

Peter could hear the sound of them flying forward at break-neck speeds and the sound of them crashes into the ground as if it were happening in front of him again. 

His mind started supplying flashes of memory of the battle that happened ten months ago. Every time he blinked, he could see the Black Order, the Chitauri, and the Sakaaran. He could hear their war cries and the guttural noises they made as they died. 

Peter looked down at his hands frantically. He could feel the weight of the Infinity Gauntlet in his arms as he lay on the dirt, staring out at the size of the impossible army. He could feel the ache in his muscles, _in his bones_ , his body telling him that he was tired and needed to stop. 

As Mr. Jameson kept scrolling down, he could smell the fire and the smoke, the blood and the death. He could take the blood and dirt in his mouth, sliding down the back of his throat. 

He was barely holding it together, his whole body shaking, and he vaguely started to wonder if anyone noticed he on the verge of a full breakdown. 

The teen knew he needed to get out of there, but he couldn’t make his legs move. He was glued to the spot in his desk, and he started to panic. 

He needed Tony or Steve or _somebody._

His limbs were numb and heavy, just like they were on Titan before he disappeared into dust. It was happening again. He was going to die. Thanos was back from a different dimension this time. He was- 

The teacher scrolled down to reveal another image. It was the shattered remains of Thanos’s giant double-edged sword that he had used, the one that Wanda had broken in her rage and anguish, lay in pieces on the ground. The photo was so close that they could see the dents from blocking Stormbreaker, the warped areas from Tony’s repulsors, and the white residue from Spiderman’s webs.

That was Peter’s tipping point. 

He flung himself out of his desk and stared stumbling backwards until his back connected with the wall. Moments later, his knees gave out from under him and he sank down to the ground, wrapping his arms around his legs. 

“Mr. Parker!” his teacher shouted over the sounds of alarm and confusion. 

He belatedly realized that his watch was blinking red and vibrating against his wrist. Tony was coming. 

The pitiful wave of overwhelming need to see his father crashed over him and left him feeling like he was trapped underwater. He knew that he was gasping and shaking, but it was like he was watching from outside of his own body.

Mr. Jameson and the other students started crowding around him, Flash included, the teen’s face twisted into a self-satisfied, mocking smirk. 

“Mr. Parker, what’s wrong?”

Peter just shook his head. He couldn’t come up with words even if he tried. He was too busy remembering how to breathe.

Reality was slipping through his fingers as his eyes caught the last shown image displayed on the board over someone’s shoulder. 

It was like he was back upstate, fighting endless wave after wave of aliens. The tile under his fingers started to feel like raw earth. The sound of his peers and teacher asking him questions tuned into orders shouted from Steve and the others and the sounds of gunfire, shouting, and metal meeting metal. The roar of battle was deafening, pounding inside his skull, silencing the voices of concern of the people in the room.

He flung his hands up to cover his ears and ducked his head between his knees in an attempt to block out the too-real memories. It wasn’t helping. His lungs were on fire. 

Peter’s senses pinged sharply to someone coming at him from his left. Fear spiked in his throat. 

“Don’t touch me!” He shouted, trying to back himself further into the concrete wall. 

The vibration of footsteps on tile told him that the person jolted back. 

It was as if two worlds were crashing into one another at the same time, and the hero was starting to have trouble separating what was real. The line between the two was blurring by the second.

He slowly removed his hands from his ears and placed them firmly on the ground and forced his mind to recognize it as tile, not dirt. 

It didn’t take long for him to regret the decision. The sounds of simultaneous heartbeats and whispers slammed his senses with the force of an explosion. He felt like his brain was going to melt out of his ears. The fluorescent lights became blinding even through his closed eye lids, and the scratch of fabric on his skin made him want to tear the flesh off of his bones. 

Peter hadn’t had a sensory overload like this since before the snap, and he had never had one combined with an anxiety attack. 

He pressed his hands into the floor so hard that the tile splintered under his palms. The alarmed shouts that came from the group surrounding him caused white-hot pain to shoot through his brain. 

He needed to move, to get out of there, but his joints felt like they were locked into place. 

“Karen,” he croaked, his voice sounding deafening even to his own ears. “How much longer until dad gets here?”

“Has he gone delusional?” Someone off to his right asked in a tone that he wasn’t meant to hear. 

Mr. Jameson shushed whoever it was that spoke. 

Peter couldn’t stop the tears that gathered in his eyes. The pain was becoming unbearable. He was convinced that his head would explode at any second. 

“Mr. Stark’s estimated arrival time is nine minutes and forty-seven seconds, Peter,” Karen said from his watch. 

For a second, no one spoke. Peter could hear the changes in their breathing patterns as they all tried to process the information that they just heard. 

Everyone started speaking at once when it finally clicked. 

Peter cried out, covering his ears again in desperation. It didn’t help, not even by a fraction. The noise seemed to increase in volume until, and his world started going fuzzy around the edges. Black spots where dancing in his vision.

The noise finally stopped when the world went dark. 

**&**

There was red soil beneath his feet. 

Thanos’s face, twisted in snarl, was directly above him, and the gauntlet was around his throat, threatening to cut off his airway, pressing him into the crater his body made in the ground. He was frantically grasping for purchase before he was abruptly lifted upward, dangling by the grip on his neck, and then thrown through the air like a rag doll, slamming into Dr. Strange before landing on unforgiving debris.

The scene changed in front of him. 

He almost had the gauntlet. It was slipping off Thanos’s fingers when Quill - _Quill_ \- ruined _everything_. 

Peter was knocked backwards and was forced to watch as Thanos destroyed the nearby moon and brought the meteor-sized chunks of planet down onto them, onto _Tony_. 

He choked on a scream, barely keeping Mantis from tumbling to the ground as Dr. Strange battled the monster and failed. 

Another change.

He was trapped, unable to come down and help as Tony was the last man standing against Thanos. He was forced to watch as his father fought and fought and _lost_ , inevitably getting stabbed in his chest by his own creation while he could do nothing. Tony was going to die, and it was going to be all his fault, and-

It changed again. 

The Guardians and Dr. Strange started turning to dust. 

His senses were going off the charts, screaming into his subconscious that something was _wrong_ , that something was about to happen, that he was going to die.

“Dad, I don’t feel so good.”

He was stumbling toward his father.

“You’re alright,” the man said, his own voice choking on disbelief.

“I don’t- I don’t know what’s happening. I-“ 

He fell into Tony’s arms, clinging to him as tight as he could without hurting him.

“I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go, dad. Please. Please I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go.” 

He could taste the dust in his throat. He could feel it burning his lungs. 

He- 

**&**

Tony disengaged the suit just as he flung open the door to where his HUD was pinging his son. 

The sight in front of him made him want to tear the world to shreds with his bare hands. 

Peter, _his Peter_ , was cowering against the back wall of the classroom the Iron Spider suit encasing his body, curled in on himself, shaking like a leaf in a storm with a group of students, _vultures_ , crowded around him like a zoo exhibit. 

He saw red. Fury ran hot in his veins. 

“Get away from him!” He roared, running forward, shoving through the bodies of shell-shocked teenagers. 

A few stumbled back, thrown off balance by the shove. Someone might have fell, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. All of his attention was on his kid. The world could have been ended around him, and he wouldn’t have noticed.

“Karen, be a dear for me and get rid of that mask, yeah?” he asked quietly.

The secret was out anyway. 

Without a word, the AI took control of the suit and let the hood creep back into the neckline, leaving Peter’s tear-stained face exposed to the room. 

If Tony’s heart was capable of breaking any more that day, it would have. 

He knew Peter wasn’t ready to come back. He should have listened to his gut. 

“Hey, Spider baby,” he said, running his fingers through sweaty curls, keeping his voice low and warm. 

Peter shifted his head in the man’s direction, a sure sign that he was getting through. It took no time to fall back into their natural rhythm.

“That’s it, buddy. Listen to me. I’m here now, cucciolo. I’m here.”

He sat down on the ground, noticing the splintered pieces of tile that lay around him, and pulled Peter until his head was in his lap. 

“Dad, I don’t want to go, please. I’m not ready I-“

Tony shushed him gently, continuing to stroke his son’s hair. He choked down the lump that formed in his throat at the words. He knew the exact moment Peter was reliving. It was the same moment that featured in all of their nightmares. 

“Come on, Petey. Open your eyes for me. We’re not on Titan anymore.”

Peter’s eyes fluttered open, but they were glassy, unfocused, and afraid. 

“There you are. Hey, eyes on me, kid. Look at me.” 

“Dad?”

Big, dark brown eyes did just that, and Tony had to clear his throat before he could speak again. 

“Bingo. That’s me, buddy. I need you to do something for me, okay? You’re not totally with us right now, and your senses are dialed up to eleven. So, let’s fix that, yeah?” 

Peter started warily glancing around the room, wincing at the light in his eyes. 

“We’re gonna narrow the stimulus down like we used to, okay? Tell me something you can smell.”

For terrifying moment, Tony considered the fact that Peter might not be aware enough to go through the exercise, but when the kid blinked a few times as if to reorient himself, he knew that he was on the right track. 

“Your cologne and the polish pops uses for his shield.”

Tony huffed a laugh. 

“Alright, bambino. What can you hear?”

Peter’s face scrunched in pain, and the genius wanted nothing more than to scoop the teen up and hide him away from the world forever. 

“Everything. ‘S all too loud.”

“Zero it in. Focus on just one.” 

He was silent for a few seconds before his face started to relax. 

“Your heartbeat.”

“Excellent. Open those eyes again and tell me what you can see.”

Peter reluctantly opened them, and kept his gaze pinned to the ceiling above him. 

Tony could almost see the tension seeping out of his shoulders as he started to slowly recognize his surroundings. 

“That weird stain up there that no one really knows where it’s from.” 

“Last one, Pete. What can you feel?”

The teen slowly sat up and flexed his fingers. 

“The suit,” he said, barely above a whisper. 

Tony nodded and ran his eyes over him in concern. The kid looked spooked again.

“You back with us?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Dad, please tell me that I’m not in the suit in front of my entire class,” Peter said, looking down at his hands. 

“I don’t think you’d appreciate the lie. I have to ask though, what set you off?” 

Peter groaned and dropped his head in his hands. 

The man who Tony presumed was the teacher finally found his voice again. 

“Oh- oh God. I think this was my fault,” he said, looking like he was about three seconds away from passing out. 

Tony felt anger spike up in him at the admission. His gaze hardened, and he snapped his head over to look at the man.

“What do you mean this was your fault? What did you do to my kid?” he growled, rising to his feet, taking a step toward the backpedaling teacher. 

“I- I just wanted to show the kids these from this article that came up, and I didn’t know! I’m sorry!” 

The teacher was pointing a shaking finger at the board where there was a projection of- 

_No._ That should have been impossible. 

Tony had to tear his eyes away from the image as he clenched his jaw. 

“Turn it off.”

“I-“

“Now!” the billionaire shouted, causing everyone in the room to jump in surprise. 

“It’s not his fault,” Peter said from his spot on the floor. 

“Peter,” Tony started. 

“No, dad. They didn’t know. In all fairness, I didn’t even know I would react like that.” 

Tony faltered slightly. He knew that Peter had a point, but the teacher had no right to show any of that to a bunch of high schoolers in the first place. 

He looked around to the silent and stunned faces of Peter’s class and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. 

“Pepper and the legal team are going to kill me for this.”

Peter’s eyes sparkled with an emotion that Tony couldn’t place, and he looked at the teen in question. 

“I- I think it’s time to have that press conference now.”

For the first time a long time, Tony was at a loss for words. He felt his heart swell slightly, almost unwilling to get his hopes up. 

“Do you mean-“ 

“Yeah. I don’t think there’s enough NDAs in the world to keep this under wraps.”

“You’re sure about this? Because I’m sure I can work something out, and-“

“Dad. I did kind of help save the universe. I think I would know when I’m sure about something,” Peter said with a small laugh. 

“You’re handling this well,” Tony blurted, unable to contain the sudden thought in his own surprise.

“I don’t think that it’s entirely sunk in yet. Give it few hours, and I’m sure I’ll want to die from embarrassment. I’m still kind of riding the adrenaline high.” 

An emotion suddenly flickered across Peter’s face, and his hand twitched at his side. It was there for only a second, but Tony knew the look well. 

He reached out in response, and the teen immediately placed his hand in his. 

“I’m here, Pete, promise. This is real.”

Peter took a deep breath and nodded before turning to his gawking class. 

“If it’s all the same to you guys, I’d really like to go home right now. I’ll answer questions after the press conference that we have to beg Pepper for.” 

“Spoken like a true Stark,” Tony snorted, pulling Peter into his side. 

He relished in the blush that raced up Peter’s cheeks. 

They were going to have to talk about a lot of things, about school, about what to do next, but all that would come in time. Tony just wanted to get his kid home and snuggled in between himself and Steve with some cheesy movie playing in the background. Peter would absolutely want the rest of the team there, and knowing him, it wouldn’t take much convincing. 

They could have the hard conversations later. Family time would always come first. The rest of the world would just have to wait until they were ready.


End file.
